The present invention relates to a SPA-1 protein involved in the control of cell division, and fragments thereof, genes coding therefor as well as antibodies against the protein.
Lymphoid cells have unique properties in cell growth ability in comparison with many other somatic cells. Namely, lymphoid cells, similar to many other somatic cells, are differentiated from a hematopoietic stem cell to mature cells via many steps of cell division, and once enter the interphase (G0/G1). After that if they are stimulated with an antigen or a special growth factor, they again enter to a cell cycle and increase to a clone with a redifferentiation, and then return to the interphase (memory cells). In addition to functional differentiation and expression specific to lymphoid cells, such repeated cell proliferation (clone proliferation) is one of the big factors in an immune response of an organism.
The present invention relates to a novel protein SPA-1 and fragments thereof expected to be involved in the control of said repeated cell growth, and fragments thereof, genes coding therefor, as well as antibodies against said proteins.